Friday, September 12, 2008 Baclao ready for UAAP title series
ATENEO University Blue Eagles forward and former West Negros University Mustang Severino "Nonoy" Baclao actually has no particular choice of team to meet for this year's UAAP men's basketball crown.
"I'm not really concerned with whom to face I just try to focus on my preparation and concentrate on aspects of my game that Coach (Norman Black) wants me to develop or improve," the soft spoken Negrense cager told Sun.Star in a telephone interview Thursday.
"It's still a little complicated down there while we're still waiting whom to play against," the Inter-Discipilinary Studies major said referring to the fight between the Far Eastern University Tamaraws and the De La Salle Green Archers for the number 2 spot in the Final Four.
FEU and DLSU were scheduled to face each other on Thursday in a game to determine which of them gains the second spot and twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four.
The playoff became necessary after both squads dropped their last elimination round assignments and wound up tied for number 2 with identical 10-4, win-loss slates.
The Archers fell for the second time this season to arch rival Ateneo de Manila, 57-65, last Saturday with Baclao playing a crucial defensive role during the final stretch of that game.
Baclao was a central figure in the WNU Mustangs' two previous championships -- the 2005 National University Games (Unigames) which they won in Bacolod City at the University of St. La Salle Coliseum, and the 2006 Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) National Students Championships (inter-collegiate) which they won in Legazpi City, Albay.
A DLSU victory against FEU in Thursday's scheduled playoff will make the Archers become the second team in the Final Four and they will face the Tamaraws anew, but they need only to win once to advance to the finals against either number 1 Ateneo or number 4 UE. (HCV)
